I know this article is half tongue in cheek, but the points are vital.
I work with the Admissions Committee and the basic tenor of that is essentially (and I wish I were exaggerating): we do not really care too much about your ability to care for patients or to learn the material -- we just care for "how far you have traveled in your life journey" and your demographic and social justice warrior scores. I wish I were exaggerating but I am not. The Admissions Committee is not even privy to MCAT scores or GPAs...might cause some people to be screened out. This is generally LCME (the accrediting body for medical schools) driven (talk about a far-left cesspool) but the entire educational matrix is suffering. We have now gone to pass/fail for everything (including national boards) because everyone is less competent (no surprise) and we do not want to illustrate it. The eventual outcome is the deprecation of medical care -- and no one ever speaks to this even though it is the elephant in the room.
It really does not matter what your political stance/affiliation is (I am a fierce independent, but far from a Bernie Sanders supporter.) -- In medicine only two things matter: 1) Do you have the intellectual capacity to learn the massive amounts of material and to apply it to each individual patient who appears before you? and 2) Do you have the passion/resolution that your calling in life is to take the best possible care of the person for whom you have assumed such responsibility? There is a reason that for so many years medicine has been considered a profession, not a job. Every distraction from these two elements (including virtually all of the "doctors need to think this way about race/sex/whatever) is bad for doctors, bad for the health system and worst of all, bad for patients.
The group of us that worry primarily about what is best for the next patient you see seems to be shrinking radically. Every admission request is about how "I want to get into medicine to help my victim group". I can think of nothing more wrong nor more toxic.
This entire discussion is getting like the conversation about CA2098 that says "you can only say/think about COVID what the diktats of the State tell you to say/think or we will cancel you (and your license)". This is just the same thing, writ larger.
This is very disheartening to hear as a parent of a daughter who will be applying to medical school within the year. As Dr VP suggests, I’ll tell her not to mention she’s a conservative! (and tell her to prepare some rubbish story on how she has overcome all the hurdles in her life being a victim and is stronger for it and how she wishes to help people who have traveled this same rocky road as her 🙄🤮)
correct. being a female... maybe. A shoe in if she fit into the woke crowd in terms of her complexion and life experiences...what BS.. but what is.. is.
When I was in med school, considering the controversial nature of the topic, they let us opt out of abortion related procedures during our OB rotations if it violated our conscience. I don’t know if that’s still an option.
But what about the trans controversy? From everything I hear about the med school experience today, they won’t let you “opt out” of participating in that issue, and good luck to anyone, student or lecturer, who dissents from that orthodoxy.
So it’s not a question of whether they’ll let a “conservative” (if that’s what we now call people who think castrating children is wrong) *into* med school, it’s a question of whether a conservative can make it through med school without getting a) mobbed or b) losing their soul/conscience/self-respect by constantly living a lie.
Eventually they’ll just build conservative friendly med schools, the med school version of Hillsdale, is my guess.
You can be a doctor who is a Democrat but take a side against masking children and get called out as a Tea Party MAGA thumper. The left has become irrational.
I was a Lifelong Democrat who will NEVER vote for another Democrat. The left supports medical tyranny, and supported AB2098. They even tried to get a bill in California that would have required you to be vaccinated for any job. The left NEVER spoke up about people losing their livelihoods due to the mandates. They didn't care about our children, elderly and our poorest communities. I worry in the future that they will try to deny treatment to people on the right. I am team humanity and compassion.
I am a staunch conservative. America was founded on the Christian principle of religious liberty (particularly religious liberty within the Christian faith). Believe it or not, I'm in internal medicine...so that puts me in the minority per the graph above. My point? If politics is downstream of culture, culture is downstream of religion. America's "religion" is now secularism: its government, its academic institutions, its media, etc. The American academic medical environment is a microcosm of this, so it stands to reason people like myself (conservative) are finding themselves on the outside of the secular looking glass...looking in. The trouble is, a major part of conservatism (at least in the academic realm) is rooted in true liberalism: grappling, contending, and reasoning with differing opinions. If the medical schools want to oust conservatives, they will be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. They will not allow the medical universities to be true universities with the free flow and exchange of ideas, theories, and perspectives. They will not be training physicians equipped with the faculties of reasoning, logic, or patience in the presence of trials (and differing opinions). They'll be training lobbyists with extensive medical vocabularies...not doctors.
But which medical schools? I highly doubt it’s the norm at a state university in the South or the middle of the country. I do think there are various echo chambers that give a disproportionate view of the impact on certain segments, though I do think it lends itself to further fragmentation of society.
See my comments above. All medical schools are accredited by the LCME. It is among the farthest left organizations (right up there with AAP) in health care. If you wish to be an accredited medical school (and you have no choice) you will be required to turn the asylum over to the inmates and to follow endless DIE and other absurd and non-medically related rules or they will deny you. The faculty mostly hate it -- LCME does not care. And medical school administrators beat everyone into compliance because loss of accreditation means you close.
What we most need is a new accrediting organization, really.
You bring up an excellent point. You'd be surprised at what goes on in the South. I graduated from a southeastern med school, and truly conservative medicolegal opinions (anti-abortion, unwillingness to lend credence to the trans push, etc.) aren't looked upon as kindly as they once were. Does that affect admissions to southeastern US med schools? I have only anecdotal evidence. I can say absolutely affirmative action was in full swing when I went through; 5-6 spots in a class of 70 saved for black students regardless of MCAT score or GPA. The majority of these took at least 6 years to graduate med school. It only stands to reason admissions criteria in the southeast has only grown more "grievance/minority/experience" based.
I very much admire your critical thinking and analysis on a variety of subjects and I would love to see you write an article describing why you support Bernie Sanders. I support legitimate liberal ideals, however, Bernie is more of a socialist than a liberal and his policies are not only naive, they are often ludicrous.
100% His ideas don’t even make sense on paper much less in practice.
It still baffles me that anyone could begin to think that someone who has never enacted a policy more complex than renaming a post office -- literally -- is capable of coming up with a policy that would reorganize how we finance our entire health care system. The largest, most complex health care system in the world. Ok. He’s legitimately as capable of doing that as he is of designing a rocket ship to Mars based on what he’s demonstrated.
My respect for Sen. Sander’s as far as policy making is about negative 1 million. My respect for his ability to hoodwink people I tend to find intelligent and have good judgment in most other areas is about a trillion. He’s in a class of his own when it comes to that.
A Bernie Sanders on steroids leader did exist and successfully transformed a country from the lowest living standard to the highest on it’s continent. Free healthcare. Free college. Free electricity. Interest free loans. Money to buy a home because homes were declared a human right. Money toward a car. Free land to farmers. And guess what? The country was completely debt free. And to boot: power was distributed as well as the wealth. Direct Democracy. People’s Congresses instead of politicians.
Definitely makes me worry about the future of medicine and the quality of doctors in ten years. I'm not sure how I feel about affirmative action. I don't want a surgeon operating on me or my family who only got into med school/residency/practice because of affirmative action. But, I also see that many kids don't have the educational opportunities to get into med school. Seems like the solution would be to fix our educational system so that ALL kids have the chance for a better education that prepares them for med school (or any other career).
Political party should never come into play in medicine. We must simply provide unbiased care. The progressive left indoctrination of medical education needs to be balanced and must take into account merit while we try to create opportunity. Dr Calhoun is entitled to his opinions. Personally I think the equity and diversity issue is skewed too far left. Like many issues we face it needs to be rebalanced. Full disclosure I am an independent physician. I believe we need to stop carving up our country with polarizing definitions. Political party is one of them.
What an interesting graphic, I had no idea!! And is it not totally consistent that the two specialties which are consistently most front and center supporting the vaccines - infectious diseases and pediatrics - are in fact number 1 and number 3 most Democratic-leaning?
Your first mistake is supporting progressivism. Progressivism is a disease. Progressivism is a inherently authoritarian fascist ideology . It’s anti-human.
Human flourishing ingenuity innovation invention can only thrive under conditions of liberty. A regulatory state or administrative state is an anathema to human flourishing
I'm a conservative leaning libertarian and I couldn't disagree more. We need people pointing out where we need to improve. And sometimes, it helps to have them force us into the future. The Civil rights movement is a great example. Were minds changing? Probably. But how much longer would it have taken for black people to get the treatment that should be guaranteed to all men without the activism of the 60s? Now, it's also clear that unchecked progressivism can be just as dangerous as unchecked conservatism. We could complement each other, if we could get our heads out of our asses and stop hating each other.
Clearly you’re not a conservative leaning libertarian at all. A libertarian ask himself the question: when is force and violence justified? And the answer is almost never.
The so-called federal US civil rights law might’ve been appropriate and that it outlawed discrimination in the public sphere. And to the extent that we have a public sphere discrimination has to be illegal.
But the problem with the civil rights act is that it cross the line to try to regulate private behavior.
If I as a person who identifies as Jewish is excluded from a country club or restaurant because the people who run a private institution have some fetishistic hatred of Jews and want to exclude me, in a free society that’s perfectly OK
So what you said above is preposterous. One cannot be a libertarian and then arbitrarily say that sometimes people have to be forced into behaving properly. You reveal your authoritarian streak. And that’s exactly my point:
The entire progressive movement is an inherently fascist authoritarian ideology that has failed everywhere it has been implemented
First, you dont get to tell me what my ideology is. You don't know me based on one comment, which you misinterpreted. I didn't mean "force" as in guns and tanks. I meant a smack in the head, as in marching in the streets. Or, are libertarians opposed to protest? And, way to miss my point entirely. I have a live and let live, government is almost alwayd bad attitude. I'm acknowledging that my ideology misses things, sometimes. This is precisely why we need people saying, "umm...excuse me, this is injustice and we need to fix it now." We can't live and let live, When you have a society that has treated an entire group of people in opposition to libertarian beliefs. You should reinforce laws and remove laws, so that it never happens again. I'm not an anarchist. Also, my point was that I recognize, that my innate perspective may miss some things and it can be useful to have people who bring other things to the table. But, I see you think you're always right.
I've read Sowell. I agree with almost everything he says. So, essentially, Im just reinforcing my world view. I don't need to read his work...progressives do! What I (and you) should read is Derrick Bell or Kimberle Crenshaw. We should push ourselves to view the world from a different perspective. You don't have to agree with everything they say to gain something from their work.
Im not always right. In fact I know very little about most things. But there's a whole group out there who have anointed themselves arbiters of morality, behaviour and ethics and these people want to force others to behave in certain ways and they think if they just jigger the laws the "right" way the society can be steered towards a better future. THis kind of thinking leads to misery always and everywhere. And it creeps into the thinking of even the most well intentioned libertarian minded person. HUman beings will only flourish under conditions of freedom. Liberty doesnt mean the freedom to abuse others rights as Im sure you know. But any application of political or government laws meant to alter or guide human behavior will always and everywhere fail and make the problems worse. Government is force and violence by definition. Government is not the same as governance. There will always be rules. But a majority voting to expropriate a minority is never moral. A small group of self appointed elites deigning to know the best rules to live by and imposing them on everyone else is the very definition of tyranny. Thats why I think Murray Rothbard was right and anarcho-capitalism is the paradigm we might strive to follow
I don't disagree with most of what you say. My point is that progressivism is not a "disease", nor is it inherently authoritarian anymore than conservativism is inherently authoritarian. Every ideology has something they can bring to the table. The simple minded tend to take both ideologies to the extremes (see the woke left and much of the religious right), but they're not inherently extreme. If you haven't read Jonathan Haidts book, The Righteous Mind, it would probably explain this topic better than I can. And it's a fascinating read. Also, I'm more of a Mises girl.
When I see my providers, I don't know nor care about their politics. When I see my patients, I don't ask or care about their politics. It is sad that one's personal political beliefs should even enter into the relationship.
Are you anti-abortion? Don't do them.
I want a surgeon that can do the operation, and a medical provider who keeps up with the literature. I'm buying expertise, not a friend.
I think it’s dangerous to ban anyone because of their political beliefs. Period. What talent do we lose? Is it so threatening that someone disagrees with you? If your opinion is based on solid fact and careful consideration, do you crush so easily under an opposing view? Is it not healthy to debate with civility? Is that scary? It is a dangerous stance to separate half our society no matter what side you’re on. Or at least it frightens me. Do I like it when people agree with me? Damn straight. It validates me. Do I hate people who disagree? No. It’s their right to do so. And maybe, just maybe, I can learn something ... or teach something in the process.
It's not only about losing talent. It's about missing perspectives. In medicine, that could be fatal. Ideological diversity isn't just about who you vote for (clearly), but about how you approach many things in life. You can generally tell how a person will vote based on personality type. Why does this matter? If you only view the world from one lense, what might you be missing? Covid is a great example. It's possible, had we only listened to one side, few people would be vaccinated. It's also possible kids would still be learning from their bedrooms. Ideological diversity makes us sharper and should be a progressive ideal, but the "progressives" have lost their way...
Everyone has opinions, a unique set of values, personality characteristics, intelligence and decision making strategies. One can lump them into one of two camps. But given the variability among individuals in each camp, this won't go very far before there is disagreement within each major camp, setting up numerous factions. Confusing one's opinion with facts is a mistake as something as completely relative as an opinion seems to by definition not be absolute. How does one conclude that an opinion, for example affirmative action, has only one correct perspective? Even if we decide that, then there are numerous other issues where progressives might take issue with and weed people out and at some point, no one will be left in medicine. But then again, I have learned that reality is stranger than fiction these last few years.
"How does one conclude that an opinion, for example affirmative action, has only one correct perspective?" Exactly. Affirmative action probably made sense coming out of the Civil rights movement. But in today's world, if it means Asian Americans are held back and not treated fairly, maybe it needs to go? Or, maybe we need to change how it's implemented? Maybe affirmative action should be based on economic privilege instead of race? I don't know, but if we could all stop fighting maybe we could come up with answers.
At first I thought it was 100% a joke - and I’m certain there’s an element of that in here but WOW…
I am SO GLAD the majority of my medical issues are in the rear view now. I do not think there’s a chance in hell to get quality care within the next 10 years; in fact I’m pretty sure that’s the case in many ways already.
I had never cared much about politics (still don’t in many ways, as the left and the right wings are attached to the same bird).
I DO know that had I gotten sober today, I would have been given an opioid like methadone or buprenorphine to remain on for life, little if any headshrinking on how to actually LIVE sober, and likely had my feelings catered to so I could live in a bubble. Thank goodness there were psychiatrists that held my feet to the fire, forced me to grow up, and helped me become a responsible, productive member of society. I have no clue as to their politics, but I do know they weren’t “politically correct” and would have scoffed at the current way of doing things. None of them would have been corporate. I sit nowhere on the political beam as I only vote locally - and haven’t trusted “Big ANYTHING” in decades. I’m sad to report my faith in medicine, as good as it’s been to me, has been shattered. The decline in the world is sad to me. The decline in medicine sickens me, but not enough to go get seen today. Maybe it’s desired by whoever pushes this “white savior” agenda.
I know this article is half tongue in cheek, but the points are vital.
I work with the Admissions Committee and the basic tenor of that is essentially (and I wish I were exaggerating): we do not really care too much about your ability to care for patients or to learn the material -- we just care for "how far you have traveled in your life journey" and your demographic and social justice warrior scores. I wish I were exaggerating but I am not. The Admissions Committee is not even privy to MCAT scores or GPAs...might cause some people to be screened out. This is generally LCME (the accrediting body for medical schools) driven (talk about a far-left cesspool) but the entire educational matrix is suffering. We have now gone to pass/fail for everything (including national boards) because everyone is less competent (no surprise) and we do not want to illustrate it. The eventual outcome is the deprecation of medical care -- and no one ever speaks to this even though it is the elephant in the room.
It really does not matter what your political stance/affiliation is (I am a fierce independent, but far from a Bernie Sanders supporter.) -- In medicine only two things matter: 1) Do you have the intellectual capacity to learn the massive amounts of material and to apply it to each individual patient who appears before you? and 2) Do you have the passion/resolution that your calling in life is to take the best possible care of the person for whom you have assumed such responsibility? There is a reason that for so many years medicine has been considered a profession, not a job. Every distraction from these two elements (including virtually all of the "doctors need to think this way about race/sex/whatever) is bad for doctors, bad for the health system and worst of all, bad for patients.
The group of us that worry primarily about what is best for the next patient you see seems to be shrinking radically. Every admission request is about how "I want to get into medicine to help my victim group". I can think of nothing more wrong nor more toxic.
This entire discussion is getting like the conversation about CA2098 that says "you can only say/think about COVID what the diktats of the State tell you to say/think or we will cancel you (and your license)". This is just the same thing, writ larger.
If you are a patient, be very afraid, I fear.
This is very disheartening to hear as a parent of a daughter who will be applying to medical school within the year. As Dr VP suggests, I’ll tell her not to mention she’s a conservative! (and tell her to prepare some rubbish story on how she has overcome all the hurdles in her life being a victim and is stronger for it and how she wishes to help people who have traveled this same rocky road as her 🙄🤮)
Having been through literally hundreds of these, that is, sadly, exactly what she needs to do. :(
correct. being a female... maybe. A shoe in if she fit into the woke crowd in terms of her complexion and life experiences...what BS.. but what is.. is.
When I was in med school, considering the controversial nature of the topic, they let us opt out of abortion related procedures during our OB rotations if it violated our conscience. I don’t know if that’s still an option.
But what about the trans controversy? From everything I hear about the med school experience today, they won’t let you “opt out” of participating in that issue, and good luck to anyone, student or lecturer, who dissents from that orthodoxy.
So it’s not a question of whether they’ll let a “conservative” (if that’s what we now call people who think castrating children is wrong) *into* med school, it’s a question of whether a conservative can make it through med school without getting a) mobbed or b) losing their soul/conscience/self-respect by constantly living a lie.
Eventually they’ll just build conservative friendly med schools, the med school version of Hillsdale, is my guess.
Sad state of affairs!
https://gaty.substack.com/
Thank you for being a voice for children.
You can be a doctor who is a Democrat but take a side against masking children and get called out as a Tea Party MAGA thumper. The left has become irrational.
I was a Lifelong Democrat who will NEVER vote for another Democrat. The left supports medical tyranny, and supported AB2098. They even tried to get a bill in California that would have required you to be vaccinated for any job. The left NEVER spoke up about people losing their livelihoods due to the mandates. They didn't care about our children, elderly and our poorest communities. I worry in the future that they will try to deny treatment to people on the right. I am team humanity and compassion.
I am a staunch conservative. America was founded on the Christian principle of religious liberty (particularly religious liberty within the Christian faith). Believe it or not, I'm in internal medicine...so that puts me in the minority per the graph above. My point? If politics is downstream of culture, culture is downstream of religion. America's "religion" is now secularism: its government, its academic institutions, its media, etc. The American academic medical environment is a microcosm of this, so it stands to reason people like myself (conservative) are finding themselves on the outside of the secular looking glass...looking in. The trouble is, a major part of conservatism (at least in the academic realm) is rooted in true liberalism: grappling, contending, and reasoning with differing opinions. If the medical schools want to oust conservatives, they will be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. They will not allow the medical universities to be true universities with the free flow and exchange of ideas, theories, and perspectives. They will not be training physicians equipped with the faculties of reasoning, logic, or patience in the presence of trials (and differing opinions). They'll be training lobbyists with extensive medical vocabularies...not doctors.
But which medical schools? I highly doubt it’s the norm at a state university in the South or the middle of the country. I do think there are various echo chambers that give a disproportionate view of the impact on certain segments, though I do think it lends itself to further fragmentation of society.
See my comments above. All medical schools are accredited by the LCME. It is among the farthest left organizations (right up there with AAP) in health care. If you wish to be an accredited medical school (and you have no choice) you will be required to turn the asylum over to the inmates and to follow endless DIE and other absurd and non-medically related rules or they will deny you. The faculty mostly hate it -- LCME does not care. And medical school administrators beat everyone into compliance because loss of accreditation means you close.
What we most need is a new accrediting organization, really.
I think you would be surprised what happens in the middle of the country: https://www.thefire.org/news/university-minnesota-medical-schools-updated-hippocratic-oath-could-raise-compelled-speech. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11348775/Top-doctor-slams-University-Minnesota-medical-school-abandoning-Hippocratic-oath.html
You bring up an excellent point. You'd be surprised at what goes on in the South. I graduated from a southeastern med school, and truly conservative medicolegal opinions (anti-abortion, unwillingness to lend credence to the trans push, etc.) aren't looked upon as kindly as they once were. Does that affect admissions to southeastern US med schools? I have only anecdotal evidence. I can say absolutely affirmative action was in full swing when I went through; 5-6 spots in a class of 70 saved for black students regardless of MCAT score or GPA. The majority of these took at least 6 years to graduate med school. It only stands to reason admissions criteria in the southeast has only grown more "grievance/minority/experience" based.
I’m aware of at least one school of Medicine in the Midwest who has completely distanced itself from the type of values you would think they’d have.
I very much admire your critical thinking and analysis on a variety of subjects and I would love to see you write an article describing why you support Bernie Sanders. I support legitimate liberal ideals, however, Bernie is more of a socialist than a liberal and his policies are not only naive, they are often ludicrous.
100% His ideas don’t even make sense on paper much less in practice.
It still baffles me that anyone could begin to think that someone who has never enacted a policy more complex than renaming a post office -- literally -- is capable of coming up with a policy that would reorganize how we finance our entire health care system. The largest, most complex health care system in the world. Ok. He’s legitimately as capable of doing that as he is of designing a rocket ship to Mars based on what he’s demonstrated.
My respect for Sen. Sander’s as far as policy making is about negative 1 million. My respect for his ability to hoodwink people I tend to find intelligent and have good judgment in most other areas is about a trillion. He’s in a class of his own when it comes to that.
Thank you! I’ve been trying to get Dr Vinay to lay this out as well. Makes no sense to me!
You’re not going to believe this but...
A Bernie Sanders on steroids leader did exist and successfully transformed a country from the lowest living standard to the highest on it’s continent. Free healthcare. Free college. Free electricity. Interest free loans. Money to buy a home because homes were declared a human right. Money toward a car. Free land to farmers. And guess what? The country was completely debt free. And to boot: power was distributed as well as the wealth. Direct Democracy. People’s Congresses instead of politicians.
Do you know where and who achieved this?
I'm not really sure, but would guess Lula da Silva in Brazil. I'm so happy he is back in office.
Please, to whom are you referring?
It was Gaddafi’s Libya.
Definitely makes me worry about the future of medicine and the quality of doctors in ten years. I'm not sure how I feel about affirmative action. I don't want a surgeon operating on me or my family who only got into med school/residency/practice because of affirmative action. But, I also see that many kids don't have the educational opportunities to get into med school. Seems like the solution would be to fix our educational system so that ALL kids have the chance for a better education that prepares them for med school (or any other career).
Political party should never come into play in medicine. We must simply provide unbiased care. The progressive left indoctrination of medical education needs to be balanced and must take into account merit while we try to create opportunity. Dr Calhoun is entitled to his opinions. Personally I think the equity and diversity issue is skewed too far left. Like many issues we face it needs to be rebalanced. Full disclosure I am an independent physician. I believe we need to stop carving up our country with polarizing definitions. Political party is one of them.
I think there is only one way you are allowed to think in medical school now. Is there a faculty member who gets hired without a DEI statement?: https://www.city-journal.org/the-corruption-of-medicine
What an interesting graphic, I had no idea!! And is it not totally consistent that the two specialties which are consistently most front and center supporting the vaccines - infectious diseases and pediatrics - are in fact number 1 and number 3 most Democratic-leaning?
Your first mistake is supporting progressivism. Progressivism is a disease. Progressivism is a inherently authoritarian fascist ideology . It’s anti-human.
Human flourishing ingenuity innovation invention can only thrive under conditions of liberty. A regulatory state or administrative state is an anathema to human flourishing
I'm a conservative leaning libertarian and I couldn't disagree more. We need people pointing out where we need to improve. And sometimes, it helps to have them force us into the future. The Civil rights movement is a great example. Were minds changing? Probably. But how much longer would it have taken for black people to get the treatment that should be guaranteed to all men without the activism of the 60s? Now, it's also clear that unchecked progressivism can be just as dangerous as unchecked conservatism. We could complement each other, if we could get our heads out of our asses and stop hating each other.
Clearly you’re not a conservative leaning libertarian at all. A libertarian ask himself the question: when is force and violence justified? And the answer is almost never.
The so-called federal US civil rights law might’ve been appropriate and that it outlawed discrimination in the public sphere. And to the extent that we have a public sphere discrimination has to be illegal.
But the problem with the civil rights act is that it cross the line to try to regulate private behavior.
If I as a person who identifies as Jewish is excluded from a country club or restaurant because the people who run a private institution have some fetishistic hatred of Jews and want to exclude me, in a free society that’s perfectly OK
So what you said above is preposterous. One cannot be a libertarian and then arbitrarily say that sometimes people have to be forced into behaving properly. You reveal your authoritarian streak. And that’s exactly my point:
The entire progressive movement is an inherently fascist authoritarian ideology that has failed everywhere it has been implemented
See Thomas Sowells vision of the anointed
Or this
https://www.amazon.com/Progressivism-Primer-Idea-Destroying-America/dp/0974925381
Or this
https://www.amazon.com/Problem-Socialism-Thomas-DiLorenzo/dp/1621575896
https://mises.org/library/egalitarianism-and-elites
First, you dont get to tell me what my ideology is. You don't know me based on one comment, which you misinterpreted. I didn't mean "force" as in guns and tanks. I meant a smack in the head, as in marching in the streets. Or, are libertarians opposed to protest? And, way to miss my point entirely. I have a live and let live, government is almost alwayd bad attitude. I'm acknowledging that my ideology misses things, sometimes. This is precisely why we need people saying, "umm...excuse me, this is injustice and we need to fix it now." We can't live and let live, When you have a society that has treated an entire group of people in opposition to libertarian beliefs. You should reinforce laws and remove laws, so that it never happens again. I'm not an anarchist. Also, my point was that I recognize, that my innate perspective may miss some things and it can be useful to have people who bring other things to the table. But, I see you think you're always right.
Read Thomas Sowell, an amazingly brilliant black man that most people have never heard of because he is on the "wrong side" for his demographic.
I've read Sowell. I agree with almost everything he says. So, essentially, Im just reinforcing my world view. I don't need to read his work...progressives do! What I (and you) should read is Derrick Bell or Kimberle Crenshaw. We should push ourselves to view the world from a different perspective. You don't have to agree with everything they say to gain something from their work.
Sowell and rothbard!
Im not always right. In fact I know very little about most things. But there's a whole group out there who have anointed themselves arbiters of morality, behaviour and ethics and these people want to force others to behave in certain ways and they think if they just jigger the laws the "right" way the society can be steered towards a better future. THis kind of thinking leads to misery always and everywhere. And it creeps into the thinking of even the most well intentioned libertarian minded person. HUman beings will only flourish under conditions of freedom. Liberty doesnt mean the freedom to abuse others rights as Im sure you know. But any application of political or government laws meant to alter or guide human behavior will always and everywhere fail and make the problems worse. Government is force and violence by definition. Government is not the same as governance. There will always be rules. But a majority voting to expropriate a minority is never moral. A small group of self appointed elites deigning to know the best rules to live by and imposing them on everyone else is the very definition of tyranny. Thats why I think Murray Rothbard was right and anarcho-capitalism is the paradigm we might strive to follow
I don't disagree with most of what you say. My point is that progressivism is not a "disease", nor is it inherently authoritarian anymore than conservativism is inherently authoritarian. Every ideology has something they can bring to the table. The simple minded tend to take both ideologies to the extremes (see the woke left and much of the religious right), but they're not inherently extreme. If you haven't read Jonathan Haidts book, The Righteous Mind, it would probably explain this topic better than I can. And it's a fascinating read. Also, I'm more of a Mises girl.
When I see my providers, I don't know nor care about their politics. When I see my patients, I don't ask or care about their politics. It is sad that one's personal political beliefs should even enter into the relationship.
Are you anti-abortion? Don't do them.
I want a surgeon that can do the operation, and a medical provider who keeps up with the literature. I'm buying expertise, not a friend.
I think it’s dangerous to ban anyone because of their political beliefs. Period. What talent do we lose? Is it so threatening that someone disagrees with you? If your opinion is based on solid fact and careful consideration, do you crush so easily under an opposing view? Is it not healthy to debate with civility? Is that scary? It is a dangerous stance to separate half our society no matter what side you’re on. Or at least it frightens me. Do I like it when people agree with me? Damn straight. It validates me. Do I hate people who disagree? No. It’s their right to do so. And maybe, just maybe, I can learn something ... or teach something in the process.
It's not only about losing talent. It's about missing perspectives. In medicine, that could be fatal. Ideological diversity isn't just about who you vote for (clearly), but about how you approach many things in life. You can generally tell how a person will vote based on personality type. Why does this matter? If you only view the world from one lense, what might you be missing? Covid is a great example. It's possible, had we only listened to one side, few people would be vaccinated. It's also possible kids would still be learning from their bedrooms. Ideological diversity makes us sharper and should be a progressive ideal, but the "progressives" have lost their way...
So my question is "is diversity more important than skill"?
Asking or using political affiliation should be illegal for now obvious reasons. This is getting ridiculous and dangerous.
MIT canceled the zoom seminar by a noted climate science expert during Covid, because he had expressed support for the idea of meritocracy.
The Woodrow Wilson center at Princeton, then offered to host his zoom seminar.
Shameful behavior by MIT.
Everyone has opinions, a unique set of values, personality characteristics, intelligence and decision making strategies. One can lump them into one of two camps. But given the variability among individuals in each camp, this won't go very far before there is disagreement within each major camp, setting up numerous factions. Confusing one's opinion with facts is a mistake as something as completely relative as an opinion seems to by definition not be absolute. How does one conclude that an opinion, for example affirmative action, has only one correct perspective? Even if we decide that, then there are numerous other issues where progressives might take issue with and weed people out and at some point, no one will be left in medicine. But then again, I have learned that reality is stranger than fiction these last few years.
"How does one conclude that an opinion, for example affirmative action, has only one correct perspective?" Exactly. Affirmative action probably made sense coming out of the Civil rights movement. But in today's world, if it means Asian Americans are held back and not treated fairly, maybe it needs to go? Or, maybe we need to change how it's implemented? Maybe affirmative action should be based on economic privilege instead of race? I don't know, but if we could all stop fighting maybe we could come up with answers.
At first I thought it was 100% a joke - and I’m certain there’s an element of that in here but WOW…
I am SO GLAD the majority of my medical issues are in the rear view now. I do not think there’s a chance in hell to get quality care within the next 10 years; in fact I’m pretty sure that’s the case in many ways already.
I had never cared much about politics (still don’t in many ways, as the left and the right wings are attached to the same bird).
I DO know that had I gotten sober today, I would have been given an opioid like methadone or buprenorphine to remain on for life, little if any headshrinking on how to actually LIVE sober, and likely had my feelings catered to so I could live in a bubble. Thank goodness there were psychiatrists that held my feet to the fire, forced me to grow up, and helped me become a responsible, productive member of society. I have no clue as to their politics, but I do know they weren’t “politically correct” and would have scoffed at the current way of doing things. None of them would have been corporate. I sit nowhere on the political beam as I only vote locally - and haven’t trusted “Big ANYTHING” in decades. I’m sad to report my faith in medicine, as good as it’s been to me, has been shattered. The decline in the world is sad to me. The decline in medicine sickens me, but not enough to go get seen today. Maybe it’s desired by whoever pushes this “white savior” agenda.